CHAPTER II. 



Doomree — Vegetation of table-land — Lieutenant Beadle — Birds — Hot springs of 

 Soorujkoond — Plants near them — Shells in them — Cholera-tree — Olibanum — 

 Palms, form of — Dunwah Pass — Trees, native and planted — Wild peacock — 

 Poppy fields— Geography and geology of Behar and Central India— Toddy- 

 palm — Ground, temperature of — Barroon — Temperature of plants — Lizard — 

 Cross the Soane — Sand, ripple-marks on — Kymore hills — Ground, tempera- 

 ture of — Limestone — Rotas fort and palace — Nitrate of lime — Change of 

 climate — Lime stalagmites, enclosing leaves — Fall of Soane — Spiders, &c. — 

 Scenery and natural history of upper Soane valley — Havdwickia binata — 

 Bhel fruit — Dust-storm — Alligator — Catechu — Cochlospermum — Leaf -bellows 

 — Scorpions — Tortoises — Florican — Limestone spheres — Coles — Tiger-hunt — 

 Robbery. 



In the evening we returned to our tamarind tree, and 

 the next morning regained the trunk road, following it to 

 the dawk bungalow of Doomree. On the way I found 

 the Ccesalpinia paniculata, a magnificent climber, festooning 

 the trees with its dark glossy foliage and gorgeous racemes 

 of orange blossoms. Receding from the mountain, the 

 country again became barren : at Doomree the hills were 

 of crystalline rocks, chiefly quartz and gneiss ; no palms or 

 large trees of any kind appeared. The spear-grass abounded, 

 and a detestable nuisance it was, its long awns and husked 

 seed working through trowsers and stockings. 



Balanites was not uncommon, forming a low thorny 

 bush, with jEgle marmelos and Feronia elephantum. 

 Having rested the tired elephant, we pushed on in the 

 evening to the next stage, Baghocla, arriving there at 

 3 a.m., and after a few hours' rest, I walked to the 



